mmmimmmmmmmmmimm'Jmmmmmmiim 


The  Problem 
of  Ulster 

•.OUCATiGNA.  LEAGUE 

2'2   Mason  Ope.  a  House 

LOS  ANGELES,  CAL. 

By 
LINDSAY  CRAWFORD 

One  time  President  of  the   Independent   Order  of  Orange 

Lodges  and  formerly  member  of  the  National  Synod  of 

the  Church  of  Ireland.    President  of  the  Protestant 

Friends    of    Ireland,    and     Editor     of    **  The 

Statesman,    "Toronto,    Canada. 


Reprinted  from  ' '  The  Statesman"  for 

®{|B  Protestant  ^^xxtxihs  ci  ^xtlnnb 

ROOM   131.  BIBLE   HOUSE.  ASTOR  PLACE 
New  York  City 


mmmmmmmmm^mmmmmmmmmrmmm^ 


URL      ' 


THE  PROBLEM    OF    ULSTER 

FACTS— NOT  FANCIES 

FROM 

"THE  STATESMAN,"  TORONTO 


THE  Irish  problem  is  an  Ulster  problem.  Were  there 
no  Ulster  the  Irish  question  could  be  solved  ami- 
cably over  night.  To  understand  the  Irish  Prob- 
lem, therefore,  is  to  know  Ulster.  To  paraphrase  Kip- 
ling: "How  can  they  know  Ireland  who  only  Ireland 
knowf*'  It  is  the  misfortune  of  English  statesmen  that 
their  eyes  are  riveted  upon  the  Sinn  Feiners  at  a  time 
when  all  the  resources  of  statesmanship  should  be  em- 
ployed in  unravelling  the  knotty  problem  of  Carsonism. 

Irbh  Unionist  Movement. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  there  are  two  Irelands,  for  the 
history  of  Unionism  in  Ireland  is  the  history  of  a  move- 
ment which  has  maintained  its  separatist  character  down 
to  the  present  time.  The  Irish  Unionist  Party  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  although  a  wing  of  the  British  Tory 
Party,  has  maintained  a  separate  political  existence,  hav- 
ing its  own  caucus  and  chairman  and  its  own  whips.  For 
a  century  it  has  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  British 
Tory  Party,  retaining  its  independent  organization  the 
better  to  influence  British  legislation  and  to  perpetuate 
its  domination  in  Irish  aflFairs.  The  history  of  the  past 
century,  since  the  Act  of  Union,  has  been  a  record  of 
undoing  of  wrongs  on  the  part  of  England  as  a  result  of 
Irish  agitation.  Step  by  step  the  alien  laws  and  institu- 
tions imposed  upon   Ireland   in  the  past   have  been    re- 

3 


voked;  proof,  if  any  were  needed,  that  the  agitations 
that  provoked  these  reforms  were  justifiable,  and  that 
the  Irish  agitators  knew  better  than  EngHsh  statesmen 
what  was  good  for  their  country.  But  the  undoing  of 
these  wrongs  interfered  with  vested  interests  and  divided 
Ireland  into  two  opposing  camps. 

The  Rump  of  Protestant  Ascendancy. 

Carsonism  is  the  rump  of  the  old  Protestant  Ascend- 
ancy, the  residuary  legatee  of  the  special  privileges 
claimed  by  the  Protestant  settlers.  It  is  a  sorry  rem- 
nant of  the  old  vanguard  that  so  stubbornly  resisted  the 
great  reforms  that  marked  the  advent  of  Democracy. 
So  long  as  Penal  Laws  and  religious  disabilities  retained 
absolute  political  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Ascendancy 
Party  England  was  in  constant  fear  of  their  separatist 
tendencies.  The  native  Irish,  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Union,  had  no  lot  or  part  in  the  government  of  Ireland. 
The  fight  for  national  independence  in  1782  and  again 
in  1798  was  the  work  of  the  Protestant  settlers.  The 
history  of  the  Irish  Parliament  from  the  earliest  times 
following  the  Anglo-Norman  invasion,  is  the  history  of 
continual  conflict  between  the  British  settlers  and  the 
English   Government. 

Catholic  Emancipation,  the  Reform  Bill,  Disestablish- 
ment, and  Land  Reform  made  serious  inroads  on  the 
Protestant  Ascendancy.  Since  the  Union  this  Ascendancy 
rested  on  four  main  pillars — the  State  Church,  with  its 
exclusive  privileges,  the  Land,  with  its  evil  land  laws, 
Castle  Government,  with  its  class  patronage  system,  and 
Higher  Education,  which  for  generations  had  been  the 
exclusive  prerogative  of  the  Established  Church,  and 
which  was  only  fully  extended  to  Irish  Catholics  in  the 
last  decade.  The  fall  of  the  Establishment  and  Land- 
lordism transferred  political  power  in  the  Irish  Tory 
Party  to  the  Presbyterian  manufacturers  of  the  North, 
who  aped  the  ways  of  the  old  landed  gentry,  rivalled 

4 


them  in  title-hunting,  and  in  many  cases  entered  into 
possession  of  their  estates.  The  sway  of  the  almighty 
dollar  succeeded  to  an  aristocracy  of  birth  and  culture 
and  the  last  state  of  Unionist  Ulster  was  worse  than  the 
first.  An  Irish  wing  of  the  British  Tory  Party,  the 
Unionists  of  Ulster,  have  always  led  in  the  van  against 
every  measure  designed  to  widen  the  power  of  the  peo- 
ple and  to  improve  the  lot  of  society. 

A  Black  Record. 

The  following,  taken  from  the  Parliamentary  records, 
is  a  typical  example  of  the  way  in  which  Ulster  Unionist 
members  voted  in  the  British  House : 

The    actual    votes    recorded    by    an    Ulster    Member 
^re  an  illustration  and  a  warning: — 
1906 — Voted  against  Trades  Disputes  Bill. 

Voted    against    motion    in    favor    of    Local 

Option. 
Voted  against  Plural  Voting  Bill. 
Voted  against  Education  Bill   (Third  Read- 
ing)- 
1907 — Voted    against    resolution    increasing    Death 
Duties  on  large  estates  over  £150,000. 
Voted  against  Scottish  Small  Land  Owners' 

Bill. 
Voted  against  Local  Option  Bill  for  Scotland. 
1908 — Voted  for  amendment  to  Address  in  favour 
of  Protective  Taxes  on  food. 
Absent  from  Second  and  Third  Reading  of 

Old  Age  Pensions  Bill. 
Voted  for  Lord  Robert  Cecil's  amendment 
making  the  receipt  of  a  pension  depend- 
ent on  "a  contribution  made  by  the 
pensioner." 
Voted  against  the  Second  and  Third  Educa- 
tion Bills. 


Voted  against  Coal  Mines  (Eight  Hours)  Bill 
for  shortening  the  hours  of  miners. 

Voted  against  Licensing  Bill  in  all  its  stages. 
1909 — Voted  against  the  Budget  throughout. 

Voted  against  Irish  Land  Bill  and  supported 
the  Lord's  amendment  which  deprived 
Ulster  of  the  benefit  of  Compulsory 
Purchase. 

Voted  against  London  Elections  Bill,  thus 
depriving  40,000  electors  of  the  fran- 
chise. 

Voted  against  Mr.  Asquith's  motion  protest- 
ing  against  the  rejection  of  the  Budget 
by  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  Ulster  Unionists  have  been  well  described  a§  the 
"Advance  Guard  of  Reaction." 

Crimeless  Ireland. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  in  normal  times  crime  in 
Ireland  is  much  less  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  yet  the  cost  of  police  is  greater  than  is  spent 
on  education,  and  much  higher  in  proportion  to  popula- 
tion than  in  England  or  Scotland.  The  following  official 
figures  tell  their  own  tale: 

Crime  and  Cost  of  Police. 

Cost  of       Persons 
Police  per    tried  for 
head  of     Indictable 
Population  Population  Offences. 

England  and   Wales     36,075,269         3s  4d  66,389 

Scotland     4,759,445         2s  5d  25,207 

Ireland    4,390,219         6s  8d  6,329 

One  of  the  commonest  slanders  against  Irish  Ireland 
is  that  it  is  "priest-ridden."  Here  again  the  statistics 
show  which  side  is  priest-ridden : 


Number  of  Clergy  in  Proportion  to  Popidatioiu 

ULSTER 

Oergy.  Proportion  to  Popn. 

Catholics 734  1  to  941  person* 

Episcopalians    597  1  "   614 

Presbyterians    577  1  "    730 

Methodists     150  1  "   325 

Other  Persuasions    ..131  1  '*    399 

In  case  it  may  be  objected  that  Ulster's  position  is  ex* 
ceptional,  the  following  are  the  figures  for  the  whole  oi 
Ireland : — 


Popn. 

Qergy.      Propn.  to  Popn. 

Catholics    3.242,670 

3,051     1  to  1,063  persoBf 

Episcopalians    . . .      576,611 

1,575     1  "      366       " 

Presbyterians    ...      440,525 

667    1  "      660       '♦ 

Methodists  62,382 

244     1  "      255       '' 

Other   Persuasions      65,654 

171     1  "      384       " 

Information  Rfsd.         2,377 

Another  myth  is  that  Southern  Ireland  is  so  poor  as 
compared  with  the  North  that  the  people  are  forced  to 
emigrate.  The  figures  that  follow  show  that  Ulster  also 
suffers  under  British  rule,  and  to  a  greater  extent  than 
any  other  part  of  Ireland: — 

Emigration  From  Elach  Province. 

Emigrants  from  Rate  per  cenL 

Ulster     12,032  38.8 

Munster     7,683  24.7 

Connaught     6,663  21.5 

Leinster    4,195  13.5 

Still  another  illusion  which  is  shattered  by  facts  is 
the  assertion  that  a  homogeneous  Ulster,  Protestant  and 
Unionist,  is  entitled  to  a  separate  life  as  a  province  of 
England : — 

7 


Religious  Professions  in  Ubter. 

Percentage  of  Total 
Population. 

Catholics    690,816  43.7 

Presbyterians    421,410  26.6 

Episcopalians    366,773  23.2 

Methodists 48,816  3.1 

All    other    Denomina- 
tions   and    Religion 

unascertained    52,343  3.3 

Information   Refused.         1,538  0.1 


1,581,696  100.0 

The  bubble  of  Carsonism  has  long  been  pricked  in  Ire- 
land by  the  Southern  Unionists  who,  for  years,  were 
bled  financially  to  keep  the  Ulster  agitation  alive.  To- 
day the  Southern  Unionist  is  against  partition.  Certain 
propagandists  say  all  Ulster  is  behind  Carson.  If  the 
figures  published  in  the  Carson  organs  are  correct,  the 
huge  majority  of  the  people  of  Ulster  are  opposed  to 
Carson.  This  explains  his  stubborn  opposition  to  a 
county  plebiscite  on  the  Irish  issue.  The  figures  given  at 
the  time  of  the  signing  of  the  Covenant,  a  couple  of 
years  before  the  war,  were  as  follows : — 

Population  of  Ulster  over   16 1,074,000 

Covenanters      (218,000     male     and 

229,000  females)    447,000 

Against  the  Covenant  627,000 

Ten  persons  out  of  every  seventeen  in  Ulster  refused 
to  sign  the  Covenant.  In  other  words,  sixty  per  cent,  of 
the  people  of  Ulster  repudiate  Carson  and  his  policy. 
Only  218,000  men  and  boys  could  be  persuaded  to  sign. 
Where  is  the  army  of  a  million  Carson  warriors.^     In 

8 


1913  the  population  of  Ulster  was  divided  as  follows : — 
Protestant  population  of  Ulster  over 

16 605,000 

Covenanters    447,000 

Balance 158,000 

In  Ulster,  therefore,  are  158,000  Protestant  men  and 
women  who  could  not  be  persuaded  or  coerced  to  sign  th« 
Covenant.  These  calculations  are  based  upon  the  as- 
sumption that  all  the  signatures  to  the  Covenant  were 
genuine.  Carson  does  not  represent  even  sixty  per  cent, 
of  the  Protestants  of  Ulster. 

Would  any  other  country  in  Christendom  be  martyred 
for  such  a  shoddy  remnant  of  an  Old  Ascendancy  that 
belonged  to  the  days  of  the  Penal  Code  and  absentee 
landlordism?  And  what  has  Carsonism  done  for  the 
working  men  who  man  the  ranks  of  the  Covenanters? 
Before  the  war  the  number  of  cottages  built  under  the 
Laborers'  Cottages  Act  was  smaller  in  Ulster  than  in 
any  other  part  of  Ireland  save  Connaught.  The  follow- 
ing comparative  table  shows  how  the  Carsonite  muni- 
cipal authorities  and  the  Carsonite  landowners  combined 
to  deprive  the  Ulster  Protestant  labourers  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  Act. — 

Summary  by  Provinces. 

Valuation  of  Rural  Number  of  Labourers' 
County.  District.  Cottages. 

Built  In  course  of 

Construction. 

Ulster    £3,420,535  6,103  794 

Munster    2,980,844         14,811  1,997 

Leinster     3,511,082         12,917  1,804 

Connaught    ...      1,380,161  1,578  462 

This  is  only  a  curtain-raiser  on  the  Irish  problem,  but 
he  who  runs  may  read. 

9 


RELIGIOUS    CRUSADE    AGAINST 
IRELAND 


[In  our  issue  of  November  Sth  our  London  correspond- 
ent exposed  the  latest  Carsonite  move  to  stir  up  religious 
rancor  in  the  United  States.  He  quoted  from  an  article 
by  Lord  Beaverbrook  in  which  the  latter  urges  an  appeal 
to  the  Methodist  Churches  in  America.  He  says:  "The 
Methodist  Church,  in  any  case  regards  a  politico-religious 
crusade  preached  by  the  Irish  with  small  favor,  but  it 
might  take  no  practical  action  on  the  other  side  unless 
its  interest  was  suddenly  aroused.  Then  it  would  act 
and  it  would  crush  the  American  Sinn  Feiners  as  a  cart- 
wheel crushes  a  toad.  The  Ulstermen  have  so  far  made 
no  real  effort  to  stir  this  slumbering  giant,  unless  perhaps 
Sir  Edward  Carson's  much  criticised  July  speech  in 
Belfast  was  intended  as  the  first  move  in  this  campaign. 
But  if  they  make  the  appeal  in  loud  enough  accents  the 
feelings  of  those  Presbyterian  and  Methodist  Churches 
Ttfill  move  to  meet  them.  *  *  *  Let  it  be  agitated  and 
fought  out  for  a  time  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic." 
Lord  Beaverbrook's  first  contingent  of  Ulster  Protestant 
pulpiteers  is  now  on  its  way  to  the  United  States.] 


IT  is  stated  in  the  Press  that  Mr.  Coote,  M.  P.,  an  Ulster 
Carsonite,  and  five  Protestant  clergymen  from  Ire- 
land, are  on  their  way  to  the  United  States  to  inflame 
Protestant  opinion  against  the  Irish  republican  move- 
ment. For  months  past  an  active  propaganda  has  been 
carried  on  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  by  British  agents 
who  have  overrun  the  United  States  in  much  the  same 
way  as  the  mercenary  Hessian  troops  of  George  III. 
overran  the  Thirteen  Colonies  in  an  eflFort  to  stem  the 
tide  of  American  revolt ;  and  as  they  overran  Ireland,  at 
a  later  date,  against  the  Ulster  Protestant  republican 
movement  of  1798.    That  these  Ulster  crusaders  against 

10 


Ireland  are  acting  with  the  connivance,  if  not  with  the 
official  support  of  the  British  Government,  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  while  no  Sinn  Feiner  is  permitted  to 
leave  Ireland  by  ordinary  methods  of  travel,  facilities 
are  afforded  Mr.  Coote  and  his  ministerial  associates  of 
voyaging  to  America  by  a  British  transatlantic  liner. 

Mr.  Coote,  M.  P.,  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  leading 
Ulster  firebrands  in  the  No  Property  crusades  of  the  past 
twenty  years.  He  believes  that  the  root  of  the  trouble  in 
Ireland  is  the  Catholic  Emancipation  Act  of  1829,  and 
that  Ireland  would  be  a  loyal  and  peaceable  country 
were  every  Irish  Catholic,  save  those  of  Unionist  pro- 
clivities, disfranchised.  He  is  a  last  remnant  of  the 
Protestant  Ascendancy  idea  that  moved  Cromwell  to  put 
the  town  of  Drogheda — men,  women  and  children — to 
the  sword ;  that  led  to  the  violation,  by  the  Williamites, 
of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick;  that  spurred  England,  in  a 
later  reign,  to  impose  the  Penal  Code,  under  which  no 
Irish  Catholic  was  presumed  to  exist  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law;  that  led  the  German  husband  of  Queen  Victoria, 
the  Prince  Consort,  to  suggest  that  the  only  remedy  for 
the  settlement  of  the  Irish  question  was  to  tow  Ireland 
out  into  the  deep  water  of  the  Atlantic  and  to  submerge 
it  for  twenty-four  hours ;  that  led  Queen  Victoria  to  boy- 
cott Ireland,  socially,  during  her  long  reign;  that  led 
her  to  hesitate  over  the  signing  of  the  Irish  Church  Act 
that  deprived  the  Protestant  Ascendancy  in  Ireland  of 
one  of  its  main  pillars ;  that  led  the  Ulster  Unionist  as- 
sociates of  Mr.  Coote,  M.  P.,  to  oppose  every  measure  of 
Irish  reform,  including  the  land  reforms  that  destroyed 
Landlordism,  another  pillar  of  the  Protestant  Ascend- 
ancy ;  and  which  brought  to  the  aid  of  Carson's  German- 
equipped  Volunteers  all  the  No  Popery  elements  in  Eng- 
land and  all  the  anti-National  forces  that  are  intriguing 
to  erect  a  sovereign  world-wide  Imperial  super-state 
upon  the  ruins  of  Dominion  autonomy. 

The  special  mission  of  Mr.   Coote  and   his   travelling 

11 


delegates  is  to  raise  the  old  sectarian  cry,  to  tight  over 
again  the  religious  wars  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  by  preaching  the  falsehood  that  the  trouble  in 
Ireland  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  the  Irish 
people  are  Roman  Catholics.  For  years  Mr.  Coote  and 
his  Ulster  Unionist  friends  have  been  in  closest  alliance 
with  English  Catholics  who  have  been  among  the  most 
bitter  opponents  of  anything  even  approaching  Irish 
home  rule.  For  years  Mr.  Coote  and  his  friends  sat  in 
political  councils  with  such  prominent  Catholic  Unionists 
as  the  late  Cardinal  Vaughan  and  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, and  co-operated  with  these  leading  lights  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  appeals  to  the  Vatican  against 
Nationalist  Ireland.  And  to  show  how  little  truth  there 
is  in  the  assertion  that  Ireland  is  "priest-ridden",  time 
and  again  the  Irish  Catholic  people  flung  back  in  the 
faces  of  the  Coote-Norfolk-Vatican  crusaders  against  the 
liberties  of  the  Irish  people  the  Papal  Rescripts  that 
were  obtained  from  Rome  by  the  intrigues  of  the  English 
Unionists.  When  it  was  decided  to  raise  a  testimonial 
to  Parnell,  in  order  to  clear  his  Wicklow  estate  of  the 
mortgage  upon  it,  the  Cootes  and  the  Norfolks  got  busy 
at  Rome  and  secured  a  Papal  denunciation  of  the  pro- 
posal which  was  ordered  to  be  read  in  every  Catholic 
Church  in  Ireland.  Did  Catholic  Ireland  submit  to  this 
English- Vatican  interference  in  their  political  aflFairs? 
At  monster  meetings  they  burnt  the  Papal  Rescript  and 
sent  back  the  message  to  both  Rome  and  England  that, 
like  O'Connell,  "the  Irish  Catholic  takes  his  religion  from 
Rome  but  not  his  politics."  And  when,  at  a  later  period, 
the  Cootes  and  Norfolks  persuaded  the  Vatican  to  lend 
a  hand  in  propping  up  Landlordism,  by  sending  Monsig- 
nor  Persico  to  Ireland  and  following  up  his  visit  by  an- 
other Papal  Rescript  denouncing  the  Plan  of  Campaign 
as  "immoral",  did  the  Irish  Catholics  submit?  Opposi- 
tion to  this  latter  Rescript  came  not  only  from  the  laity 
but  from  the  clerical  ranks  as  well.    The  land  war  never 

12 


halted  and  the  only  comment  one  is  called  upon  to  make 
at  this  period  is  that  all  the  credit  for  the  land  reforms 
passed  in  Ireland  as  the  result  of  the  fidelity  of  the  Irish 
Catholics  to  their  own  interests  is  now  taken  by  the 
Cootes  and  other  Carsonite  opponents  of  Irish  independ- 
ence. Having  resisted  land  reform  for  a  century  they 
now,  as  Unionists,  have  the  hardihood  to  tell  the  Ameri- 
can that  land  reform  is  one  of  the  great  blessings  that 
have  flowed  from  British  rule! 

Is  the  Irish  Movement  a  Catholic  Movement? 

No  American  Protestant,  who  knows  the  history  of  his 
country,  and  of  its  fight  for  freedom,  can  be  led  astray 
by  the  sectarian  crusaders  who  are  coming  to  his  coun- 
try, under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Coote,  M.  P.,  to  raise  the 
fiery  cross  of  religious  dissension.  The  suggestion  might 
lead  some  astray  who  do  not  think  very  deeply  on  such 
matters,  that  Ireland  is  anti-English  simply  because  Ire- 
land is  a  Catholic  and  England  a  Protestant  country. 
But  the  War  of  American  Independence  was  not  a  Cath- 
olic rising.  The  revolt  of  Grattan's  Parliament,  at  a 
time  when  England  was  hampered  by  war,  was  not  a 
Catholic  rising.  There  was  no  Catholic  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Boer  War  in  South  Africa;  no  Catholic  inspires 
the  Egyptians,  the  Indians  and  the  Persians  to  arraign 
England  to-day  because  of  her  tyranny  and  arbitrary 
power  in  depriving  these  peoples  of  their  rights  and 
liberties!  Why  must  it  be  assumed  that  Ireland's  fight 
for  independence  today,  when  Catholics  are  in  political 
power  through  the  franchise,  diflfers  from  the  fight  of 
the  Irish  Protestants  in  1782,  or  of  the  Boers,  and  other 
nations  not  professing  the  Catholic  faith,  who  find  in 
English  rule  the  antithesis  of  national  freedom?  The 
truth  is  that  Protestant  England  as  stubbornly  resisted 
all  tendencies  towards  Irish  independence  in  days  when 
the  Protestant  Ascendancy  party  alone  had  political 
power  in  Ireland,  as  she  does  to-day  when  a  widened 

13 


iranchise  confers  political  power  upon  a  Catholic  ma- 
jority. And  all  down  through  the  wars  against  Irish 
freedom  England,  at  most  critical  periods,  has  been  in 
closest  alliance  with  Rome.  It  was  so  in  the  days  of  Wil- 
liam III.  That  Protestant  sovereign  and  the  Pope  were 
allies  against  Louis  of  France,  and  Papal  fvmds  helped  to 
furnish  the  arms  that  enabled  William  to  cross  the  Boyne 
and  to  drive  James  from  the  Throne,  These  things  arc 
not  recorded  in  the  Orange  lodges  of  Ulster,  nor  will  they 
be  so  much  as  hinted  at  by  Mr.  Coote  and  his  Ulster 
clerical  associates  who  are  seeking  to  stir  up  religious 
strife  in  the  United  States.  During  the  past  forty  years, 
during  which  Irish  Unionists  distributed  millions  of 
pamphlets  and  leaflets  in  England  with  the  object  of 
defeating  home  rule,  the  place  of  honor,  in  this  Unionist 
propagandist  literature,  was  given  to  the  Vatican  and 
other  Catholic  declarations  against  the  political  and 
social  tendencies  of  the  Irish  people.  Two  notable  ex- 
amples of  the  dishonesty  of  the  Unionist  "Rome  Rule" 
cry  are  to  be  found  in  the  circulation,  by  these  Irish 
Unionists,  of  Pope  Leo's  denunciation  of  the  Plan  of 
Campaign  and  of  Cardinal  Cullen*s  famous  denunciation 
of  the  home  rule  movement  as  anti-Catholic  in  its  tend- 
encies. Mr.  Coote  and  his  friends  straddle  both  sides  of 
the  fence  when  it  suits  their  purpose.  To  the  Catholic 
electors  of  England  they  pointed  to  the  Pope's  Rescript 
on  the  Plan  of  Campaign  and  to  Cardinal  Cullen's  ex- 
pressed fears  that  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland  would 
be  the  first  to  suffer  from  the  inroads  of  the  idea  of  na- 
tionality and  all  it  implied.  And  if  this  failed  they  could 
call,  as  a  witness,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  one  of  the  leaders 
of  Unionism  and  a  loyal  son  of  the  Catholic  Church,  who, 
in  a  memorable  speech  on  Irish  home  rule,  uttered  these 
warning  words  to  the  English  Catholic  electors : — 

**We  believe  that  under  these  circumstances  a 
section  of  the  Irish  people  would  be  brought  into 
conflict  with  the  Church,  and  we  cannot  look  for- 

14 


ward  to  such  a  struggle  without  the  gravest  appre- 
hension; and  for  this,  among  other  reasons,  we,  as 
British  Catholics,  are  opposed  to  the  policy  of  Home 
Rule." 
But  in  Ireland,  or  among  the  stalwart  Protestants  of 
Liverpool,  out  of  earshot  of  English  Catholics,  Mr.  Coote 
and  his  clerical  assistants  were  free  to  ring  the  changes 
on  "Rome  Rule."  Could  there  be  a  more  striking  ex- 
ample of  rampant  clericalism  than  the  spectacle  present- 
ed by  Mr.  Coote*s  troupe  of  clerical  nomads  in  their  visit 
to  the  United  States,  as  the  apostles  of  sectarian  hate  and 
bigotry?  To  English  Catholics  these  Ulster  Protestant 
pulpit  politicians  present  the  Rescripts  of  the  Vatican 
and  the  warnings  of  Cardinal  CuUen  and  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  to  show  the  dangers  to  the  Catholic  Church 
of  the  struggle  for  Irish  national  freedom.  In  the 
United  States  they  will  present  the  other  side  of  the 
shield — they  will  try  to  convince  American  Protestants 
who  are  unacquainted  with  the  facts  that  the  Irish  na- 
tional movement  is  another  Popish  plot  for  the  ex- 
tirpation of  Protestantism,  and  they  will  knowingly  lie 
in  the  face  of  Irish  history  and  of  all  the  facts  when 
they  raise  the  cry  of  "Rome  Rule." 

Lindsay  Crawford. 


The  New  York  World,  November  30,  under  London 
date  line,  prints  the  following: 

Lord  Beaverbrook,  who  runs  the  Daily  Express,  also 
is  understood  to  be  responsible  for  sending  the  deputa- 
tion of  Ulster  Presbyterian  pastors  which  is  now  en  route 
to  America  to  stir  up  the  anti-Catholic  feeling,  which  on 
his  recent  return  from  New  York  he  proclaimed  in  the 
columns  of  his  paper  as  the  surest  way  of  turning  Ameri- 
can sympathy  with  Ireland  into  antagonism. 


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